1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component module having electronic component devices mounted on a circuit board. An electronic component module is applicable to electronic apparatuses of various purposes, such as a GPS (global positioning system) module, a W-LAN (wireless LAN) module, a tuner module, and a clock module.
2. Related Art
In recent years, electronic component modules that have a plurality of electronic component devices, such as semiconductor devices, mounted on circuit boards are rapidly becoming common.
FIG. 14 shows a known example of an electronic component module that includes a first semiconductor device 10 (such as a control IC), a second semiconductor device 11 (such as an RF (radio frequency) IC), and a plurality of passive components 13 and 14. The semiconductor devices 10 and 11 and the passive components 13 and 14 are arranged side-by-side on a circuit board 1a, and are covered with a metallic shield casing 15.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-204013 is published as a related art. The contents of this publication are incorporated by reference in their entity.
However, in the electronic component module of the known art, since the first and second semiconductor devices 10 and 11 are arranged side-by-side on the circuit board 1a, the circuit board 1a requires a space for mounting the first and second semiconductor devices 10 and 11. This causes the circuit board 1a to be large in size, thus unfavorably leading to size increase in the entire structure of the electronic component module.
In addition, in the case where the electronic component module is provided with the shield casing 15, the assembly process of the electronic component module becomes complicated since positioning and soldering between the shield casing 15 and the circuit board 1a, for example, are necessary. Moreover, if the electronic component module is to be manufactured by a technique in which multiple electronic component modules are to be obtained from a large board having a plurality of circuit board areas, the shield casing as described above must be attached to each one of the circuit boards. This significantly lowers the productivity.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic component module that is compact and allows for high productivity, and a method for manufacturing the same.